


If It Means a Lot to You

by VioletTeaTime



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Auditory Processing Disorder, Awkward Kuroo Tetsurou, Fluff and Angst, Kuroo Tetsurou is a Good Friend, M/M, Third Gym (Haikyuu!!), Tsukishima Kei is Bad at Feelings, dumbass characters, hard of hearing tsukishima kei
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-28
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:08:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22411519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VioletTeaTime/pseuds/VioletTeaTime
Summary: Kuroo notices that Tsukishima is always wearing headphones, except when he plays. One day, he finds out why.-aka Tsukishima has an auditory processing disorder
Relationships: Kuroo Tetsurou/Tsukishima Kei
Comments: 17
Kudos: 246





	If It Means a Lot to You

**Author's Note:**

> howdy! so a couple things  
> \- tsuki has apd in this fic, which is something that i myself struggle with. essentially, he is unable to process much of what he hears.  
> \- not every person who has apd is the same so i based his more closely on mine.  
> ALSO i changed the dialouge with the third gym scene

Tsukishima Kei must really like music. Kuroo had noticed how every time he had seen the blonde, there had been a pair of gray _Sony_ headphones resting over his ears, squishing his glasses tightly to his head. The Nekoma team sat on the wooden benches at the side of the gym, taking a break between practice matches as the losers went for their punishment. Beside him, Kenma had pulled his knees to his chest, a single headphone in as he watched a video on his phone. Kuroo nudged him. "Hey."

Kenma looked up at him, a bored expression on his face. "Yes?"

"The tall ass on Shouyou's team. The blonde. Tsukishima. What music does he listen to?" Kenma blinked at him, and sighed, pausing the video. 

"I don't know. Shou and him don't get along well. He says that Tsukishima is either rude or ignores him." Kuroo let out a soft 'hm'. "Okay."

Kenma turned to half face him. "Please don't be stupid. I don't want to be liable." Kuroo shrugged.

-

Practicing without a blocker was useless. There was nothing to learn from just slamming the ball down on a random spot across the net, even though Bokuto acted like it was the match point every time the ball hit his hand. Kuroo glanced outside the gym doors, debating on stepping out into the cool night air for a moment. He froze as Tsukishima slowly walked down the path, sneakers dragging across the concrete. His headphones glinted in the moonlight. 

Kuroo opened his mouth, ready to call for the boy to join them when a ball hit him on the back of the neck. He keeled over, heat exploding from the point of impact. His hand flew to the area, and he turned to see Bokuto's amused face and Akaashi swatting the shit disturber. 

"He won't hear you from here. Headphones. Dumbass." Akaashi sounded annoyed, but Kuroo was more surprised just to hear him speak to someone who wasn't Bokuto. 

Kuroo's feet began running before he realized it. Within seconds, he was behind Tsukishima, who had yet to notice him. Kuroo reached out and tugged on the blonde's sleeve. Tsukishima cursed and spun around, a wild look on his face. He pushed his headphones down to rest against his shoulders, recollecting himself to have a calm face. Even standing a few feet away, Kuroo could hear loud rock music coming from Tsukishima's headphones, English words clouding the air. Tsukishima reached a hand up and pressed a button on the headphones, silencing them. "Yes?"

Kuroo blinked. He hadn't thought this far ahead. "Block and receive for me." Shit. That sounded weird. Oh fuck, that sounded wrong. Did that sound like a sex thing to Tsukishima too? 

"Sorry, what?" Tsukishima chewed on the skin on his lips, looking disinterested. 

"Um... we need a blocker for practice." 

"Oh. Yeah. No, I'm good." Tsukishima turned away and began walking again. 

"Hey, hey! Tsukishima! Please?" Kuroo knew he sounded pathetic, but Tsukishima was exactly the person he wanted now. He held so much untapped potential, he was obviously smart by the way he analyzed the court, and he was hot as hell. 

"Why don't you get someone from your team to block?" Tsukishima had turned to face him again, grinding his teeth. 

"My boys are in bed, and no one from Fukurodani is willing to deal with Bokuto's spikes after the whole day."

"So why would I want to?" 

"Because, you need to practice." Tsukishima scoffed. 

"I think I've had enough practice for today, thanks."

"Hm. Guess you really are letting the little ginger beat you then, huh?" Kuroo hoped that was the right button to push. Tsukishima's face darkened, and Kuroo didn't know if that was a sign of having a blocker to practice with, or if he was going to get the shit beaten out of him. 

"Where are you practicing?" 

-

Tsukishima wasn't a bad player, just an unmotivated one. But this fire, it was exciting. Kuroo watched as Tsukishima dropped his bag on the floor, starting to prepare himself for the game. Bokuto stepped over to him, rapid-fire speaking. Tsukishima looked at him with a blank face. Behind Kuroo, Akaashi hummed.

-

The practice was short lived. It had been a long day, all of them were tired. Bokuto was busy talking Akaashi's ear off as they cleaned up, so Kuroo headed over to Tsukishima to talk to him.

"Hey. Thanks for blocking. You're getting better." Tsukishima's eyebrow twitched.

"Or you're getting worse." He lugged his bag back over his shoulder, sliding his headphones back over his ears.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Kuroo."

He watched as Tsukishima slowly dissipated into the darkness outside. Kuroo turned back to face in the gym, and Bokuto was staring at him. 

"What's up with that guy?"

"What do you mean?" Kuroo sat down, untying his shoes as Bokuto carried on.

"He never responded when I told him to do something. He just grunted. And usually didn't do it. Man, those Karasuno guys are _weird._ "

"If you want to see weird, look in a mirror. He's quiet, I don't know." Bokuto was right though. Tsukishima was dead quiet when he played, and seemed to glance around when spoken to. Even when he was playing with his own team, it took him a second to realize what was being yelled at him. 

Akaashi's voice broke the silence. "That's not our concern, Pain-In-The-Ass Kuroo. We need to sleep." 

Kuroo hit the lights on the way out of the gym.

-

Hinata dug his bony elbow right in the squishy part of Tsukishima's side, jolting him.

"What do you want, pipsqueak?"

"Rooster Head is staring at you!" Hinata obviously gestured to where Kuroo and Kenma sat, the later distracted. Tsukishima felt the corner of his lips lift. 

-

"Fuck, fuck, he's smiling. Oh my God, Kenma, he's smiling." Kuroo's heart wanted to burst out of his chest, run across the gym floor, and jump into Tsukishima's arms. Kenma looked up, and smiled at his own boyfriend, sitting next to the blonde giant on the bench. Tsukishima had a single sport headphone on the ear further away from Hinata, but looked to be regretting it as the ginger pestered him.

"Why don't you just go talk to him? I'll come with you to distract Shou." 

-

Kuroo always forgets how handsome Tsukishima is up close. He smiled as Hinata clung on to Kenma, the two shorter boys chattering, moving a few feet down the bench. 

"Hey, Tsuki." Tsukishima's face creased slightly, and Kuroo realized he probably shouldn't have given him a nickname already. 

"Hey, Rooster Head." Kuroo watched as Tsukishima turned the sound up in his headphones, the melody of piano hitting Kuroo from the open ear bud hanging down. 

"You look tired, did you get enough sleep?"

"No, because some assholes decided I needed to help them practice after a full day of games." His voice sneered, but his smirk was more than enough to let Kuroo know he was joking. 

"Uh... I was wondering if you wanted to get lunch with me today?" Kuroo's voice faltered. There are so many people around that if Tsukishima made a big deal about saying no, everyone would know what happened. Fuck, most of the team thought he was straight. _Tsukishima_ probably thought he was straight until thirty seconds ago.

"Why would I want to eat lunch with Nekoma?" Jesus Christ, this kid was fucking oblivious.

"No, no, I mean me. Like. Us. Only." Tsukishima looked at him curiously.

"Oh. Yeah."

-

They had gone to this small sushi restaurant nearby, not wanting to fill up too much before playing more games. The restaurant was small, with almost every table filled with others enjoying their own lunches. Tsukishima cringed as they walked in. Kuroo knocked his shoulder into Tsukishima gently.

"You good?" Tsukishima simply nodded before making a bee line to one of the only open tables before two high school girls could. A woman quickly made her way to collect their drink orders. Kuroo ordered a water, and Tsukishima nodded, ordering one as well.

"So, Tsuki, what do you do outside of school and volleyball?" Kuroo wanted to get the ball rolling on getting to know the blonde across from him. Tsukishima merely kept reading his menu, eyes seeming to strain even behind the thick glasses he wore. 

"Tsukishima?" Kuroo raised his voice a little louder than it had been before, which got Tsuki's attention.

"Oh, sorry. You said something?" 

"What do you do outside of school?"

"What?"

"What do you-"

"Not much, I read a lot and play piano." Kuroo nodded, before looking up at the server who was on her way back. He ordered a miso soup and a six piece variety of sushi, while Tsukishima ordered a bowl of rice and cucumber rolls. 

"What do you like to do?" Tsuki's voice was louder than need be, and one of the girls at a table nearby looked over. Kuroo smiled at her and she looked away, blushing. 

"I play soccer and some video games." Tsukishima nodded. This was much more awkward than he thought it would be. Anyone he had gone on dates with in the past had been loud, talkative people. Right now, Tsukishima was just loud. 

"So, uh, do you think you guys will win any games this training camp?" The question was rude, but he tried to say it nicely.

"What?" 

"Sorry, I didn't mean it in a bad way!" Kuroo held his hands up and Tsukishima snorted.

"I just didn't hear you."

"Maybe those headphones are turning you deaf." Kuroo stuck his tongue out, but Tsukishima didn't look happy with what he had said. He looked off to the side a little, and sighed.

"Tsuki?" He didn't want this Adonis in front of him to be mad at him. Jesus fuck, Kuroo was bad at talking to boys.

"I don't hear great, the headphones usually help me focus on who I'm trying to hear. It blocks everything else out." Kuroo blinked.

"Fuck, I made a deaf joke to a deaf kid." 

Tsukishima snickered, "yeah, you did." 

The server set the food down, and Tsukishima dug in like Kuroo hadn't just been an absolute asshole. 

"Rooster, it's fine. You didn't mean it. It's actually a gift in disguise, I can ignore Hinata most of the time." Tsukishima gave him an honest to God smile, and Kuroo felt like he wanted to melt through the floor.

"Yeah, exactly! Kenma was telling me that Hinata..."

-

Kuroo twirled the jack in his hands, looking around for Tsukishima. His dumb ass team mates stood right by the grill, practically drooling for their third or fourth serving of meat. Kuroo scanned the crowd, locking eyes with Daichi. He would never admit it, but that man scared the shit out of him. Daichi smiled slightly, pointing behind the crowd to a tree. Kuroo gave him a thumbs up.

Tsukishima looked peaceful in the shade, the freckled boy from Karasuno a few feet away, talking animatedly. When he saw Kuroo approach, he grinned widely at him, and sprung up, claiming he was going to get seconds. Tsukishima hadn't noticed his presence yet, and slipped his headphones back over his ears. Kuroo sat beside him, making the blonde open his eyes. Kuroo gave him the universal sign for one second, and Tsukishima nodded, letting his eyes slip closed again.

Kuroo reached for Tsukishima's phone, laying screen-up on the ground. He tapped the screen one, and smiled at the wallpaper of what looked like a child version of Tsukishima and little green hair on Halloween. With a quick tug, he pulled Tsukishima's headphones out of the phone.

"Hey, what are-" Kuroo slipped the jack in, and reconnected Tsukishima's headphones. Kuroo slid a pair of borrowed Pokemon earbuds out of his pocket, and plugged them in to the other half of the jack. 

He leaned his back against the tree, the silky sound of a violin and piano duet washing over him. Tsukishima looked at him with wide eyes.

"Might as well block out the sound of your libero hitting on your ace. Plus, your taste in music is nice." Tsukishima smiled, and leaned his head against Kuroo's shoulder. 

"Sap."

"You got me." Tsukishima tangled his fingertips with Kuroo's.

"I hope so." 

**Author's Note:**

> tysm for reading! please leave a like or comment below!  
> 


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